Upton Warren
As i Predicted the previous day, early morning i had a text to say that a summer plumages Bar-tailed Godwit was at upton, so we headed to where the bird had been seen at the moors, However on entering the hide i was greated by the news that it wasent there, However this Looked Up then i spied my 3rd and 4th ARCTIC TERN of the day and year feeding over the pool.
They did land on occasion, but always at the back of the islands and always into the sun, after some time watching the terns we decided to head to the flashes, but while walking back we decided to stop in the 'secret garden' to see if anything was in there, we walked up and suddenly a Roe Deer burst out of the bushes and sprinted towards the road, we heard it clicking as it scuttled across the pavement and towards the north moors, we decided to go and have a look, but after about 10 mins we gave up and had another brief check of the garden.
But when leaving the agrden underneath the oak tree i spied a flock of birds that i thought were pigeons passing over, however they where flying dodgy, so up went the bins and i was absolutly extatic to see a stunning flock of 27 BAR-TAILED GODWITS flying over, i scanned through the entire flock to check they all were bar tails and they were, all with the wedge up their back and the upturned bill, quite a proportion of the flock contained red males, but there was also quite a few female/winter birds, the birds reached the powerlines over the paddocks and started circling giving brief hopes they would fly back, but they never did and continued north. I quickly informed everyone who i knew on site, But everyone replyed that they hadent even seen any flock of any bird fly over!!
When we reached the crowd in the carpark at the flashes i mentioned it again and they were wondering how they had missed them, we wroked out that the flight path of the birds would have them following the A38 across the transmitter field (therefore out of view of the flashes hide), across the sailing pool (where no birders where) and then across the back of the eddy, and behind the east hide at the moors, this line equels up to the direction they flew across over the paddocks, being in very high spirts we headed down to the flashes, where when reaching the bench, the WHIMBREL from yesterday flew across in front of us and landed at the back of the flashes again.
On entering the hide it was obvious the stars of yesterday had remained, with both WOOD SANDPIPER and the WHIMBREL remaining, but more wader passage overnight had resulted in a few more waders. the waders list is below (including breeders):
4 Oystercatcher
16 Avocet
8 LRP
Lapwing (??)
1 Wood Sand
1 Green Sand
2 Common Sand
1 Redshank
1 Bar-tailed godwit (the bird from the moors earlier in the day, so 28 birds seen)
2 Curlew
1 Whimbrel
4 Snipe
Not a bad list i think tbh, the Godwit remained at the back of the flash throughout and fed in the sewage works field with the whimbrel ofternly, the F White wagtail remained in front of the hide
(Photo- Dave Walker)
MB
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